Crafting, parenting and getting my geek on.

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About telltalethread

Who: My name is Carolyn and I'm a crafter with one husband, one daughter and two cats.
What: Sewing, quilting, reminding myself how to crochet and teaching myself how to knit.
Where: Vancouver Island, B.C.
When: I've been a crafter since I was a kid and still enjoy it just as much as I did then. I've tried all sorts of things - cross stitch, crochet, sculpting, stamp-carving, etc and always enjoy giving something new a try.
Why: I'm really looking forward to my baby girl being old enough to join me at the craft table (but not too soon! Stay small Miss S!). In the meantime, I'll share what I'm up to with the good people of the interwebs.

You know how people sometimes pick a word for the year? Or a theme? I tried to think of a word that would encompass everything I’ve been feeling, the direction I wanted to go and what I want to bring into my life. It’s a tricky business. You want your word to be positive, motivating and meaningful to you so that you won’t just give up the whole thing by February. I kept coming back to ‘light’ which is is terribly vague, isn’t it? I’m keeping it though and adding ‘lighten up’.

Between the word and the little phrase I think I have all of my bases covered for what I want to achieve in 2016 and what I want to carry forward with me. In a literal sense, I want more light in my life and my home – I have plans to re-paint a room or two with lighter colours (or white!) and to do some major re-organization and de-cluttering to make the spaces look and feel lighter. This goes for the side yard of our house, too. I want to clear it up and take down an old bit of fence that’s doing nothing but holding up a half dead wisteria. I’d like that space to be more usable and friendly for The Kid to run around in.

I’m also going to be focusing on my health and fitness this year with a goal to losing at least 50lbs (yikes) and therefore physically lightening myself. My desire to lose the weight isn’t coming from a sense of being uncomfortable in my skin and I’m not looking for a quick fix. If I reach even the half way point of my goal by years end I’ll consider that a win and carry on. The biggest reason for wanting to see some changes physically is to hopefully help my fertility. It’s been a struggle, going through infertility and secondary infertility. That struggle has spanned a number of years and a number of dress sizes so I’m not putting all my eggs (ha!) in one basket and hoping that this will suddenly be the magic cure but hey, it can’t hurt, right? I think I’ll add in some acupuncture and maybe give some Eastern medicine a shot (since I’m a little disgruntled with Western medicine at the moment).

And that brings me to the figurative side of my word of the year. After a miscarriage in 2014, another at the start of 2015 and the unexpected death of our youngest cat just before Christmas, I feel like I’ve been carrying so much sadness and grief with me. It’s exhausting. I won’t just be packing that all up and hiding it away but I’m going to make an effort to bring more happiness in and lighten up my heart. I will always, always grieve for my lost babies but I would rather honour their memory by living as happily as I can. And for my daughter, who I am so, so lucky to have, I don’t want her memories of me to be that I was always sad or angry. I don’t expect this process to be easy, especially since we’re still actively trying for a successful pregnancy but I think working on it and acknowledging the feelings when they arise will be helpful.

That feels like kind of a downer note to leave this post on so here’s a photo of a kitten using a laptop.

I have a serious problem. I love to do nothing. I am a Procrastinator with a capital ‘P’. I procrastinate like it’s my JOB*. On the flip side, I also really, really like to make shit. These two sides to my personality lead to this:

I made this as a reminder to myself.

And also this, which you may recognize from a previous post:

What we have here, collectively, is 2 quilts ready to be quilted and bound, 2 quilt tops that need backs and batting cut, 2 sets of pieces for quilts waiting to be assembled, a toddler dress so close to being finished it’s not funny, 2 wall hanging embroideries, everything for a corkboard project, 1 large pencil drawing that has been half finished for almost a DECADE, and my inspiration pieces for this year’s Desert Bus for Hope auction submission. Not pictured, is one more quilt that needs to be quilted and bound and a small chair that is painted and ready to be upholstered.

Like I said, I have a problem. BUT. I have decided that this ridiculousness has reached epic proportions and CANNOT be allowed to get worse. So, my goal for the remainder of this year is to not take on or begin any new projects until this lot is done. That gives me almost six months. The only project with a time restriction is my submission for Desert Bus** (for the kids!), so that will be what I concentrate on first. The embroideries I can work on while I watch OITNB or Supernatural, so I should have some simultaneous finishes.

In addition to the crafty goodness, I’m also hosting a 60 day fitness challenge based on Hero’s Journey 2.0. Details of the program we’re following can be found here. A group of friends and I will be exercising our way to being fitter, healthier humans with a little bit of geeky role playing fun thrown in for interest.

Perhaps having all of that going on at once is asking a little much of myself given my tendency to do nothing at all, if given the choice. I figure the more I make a plan to do, the better chance I have of actually getting some of it done. Right?

* I wish it was my job. Having to focus on actual work 5 days a week hurts my lazy brain. No wonder I’m so dang tired!

** If you’re a maker/crafter/Sorcerer of Awesome, there is still time to submit a craft idea for Desert Bus! Submissions close on the 20th of July.

…when you have two tops waiting to be sandwiched and quilted, one quilt ready for quilting, one quilt ready for binding and, the pieces for two more tops cut and ready to be pieced (one of which isn’t pictured because that would just be embarrassing).

Actually, I’m pretty sure I have at least two others in various stages of completion but I don’t know where they are am keeping them secret for a future post.